


Wormtail's Dilemma

by brilliantsnafu



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aromantic, Aromantic Character, Aromantic Peter Pettigrew, Asexual Character, Asexual Peter Pettigrew, Asexuality, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Gryffindor, Gryffindor Common Room, Internalized Arophobia, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), POV Peter Pettigrew, Platonic Relationships, Public Display of Affection, The Fat Lady - Freeform, The Marauder's Map, Tumblr: aroacehogwarts, romance repulsed, self-deprication
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 11:16:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20777672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brilliantsnafu/pseuds/brilliantsnafu
Summary: Romance repulsed Peter uses the Marauder’s Map to avoid James and Lily making out in the common room. He once waited outside the portrait hole for two hours, before realising people don’t snog for that long.





	Wormtail's Dilemma

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on [aroacehogwarts](https://aroacehogwarts.tumblr.com) on [February 16, 2016](https://aroacehogwarts.tumblr.com/post/139409142617/aroacehogwarts-does-the-aro-spectrum-awareness) for the Arospec Awareness Week Fandom Challenge.

He pulled the Map from his cloak pocket and checked it once more. Nope. The two crimson dots representing James and Lily still hadn’t moved from their usual seat beside the common room fireplace. He could just imagine them, a tangle of arms and legs, their warm, quiet voices only pausing for another long, burning kiss… 

Peter shook his head and sighed, peaking around the corner at the Fat Lady lounging in her portrait. She barely glanced his way this time, having asked repeatedly for the password and getting no answer for the better part of two hours.

Peter pressed his back against the wall and slid down until his bottom hit the cold stone floor. It was nearly curfew; very soon he would have to enter Gryffindor Tower whether he could avoid his friends or not. (Breaking school rules certainly lost its charm when he wasn’t with Remus, or Sirius, or James.) He hoped he would soon see the group of fifth years who spent every free moment in the library. The past few nights he had blended in with them as the Fat Lady swung open to let them through, and after hours of OWL preparation they were either too tired or didn’t care enough to say anything. He would then slip up to the boys’ dormitory before James or Lily could ask him to stay downstairs. Then he would have a few glorious, romance-free hours with his best mates before bed.

Peter flipped and folded segments of the map until he found the library. It could be difficult to locate the fifth years in that maze of ever-shifting bookshelves, but Peter had a knack for finding just what he was looking for on the map. That’s part of why the others entrusted him with its everyday care. He could often spot unexpected adventures.

He saw no fifth years though.

Maybe they were already heading his way? He found the halls and then the stairways on the enormous piece of parchment, swearing as he unfolded, and refolded, and _re-_refolded, and jabbed himself with his wand in the process. No sign of them.

Had they taken the night off? Peter felt an anxious flutter in his gut. He turned the entire map over to check Gryffindor Tower when–

“Peter?”

“L-Lily!” She poked her head around the corner. He hadn’t even heard the portrait swing open.

“Pete!”

“James!” The Map crunched between Peter’s fingers and he immediately loosened his grip.

“What are you doing out here?” Lily asked. James slipped a hand around her waist.

“Yeah, and more importantly, what are you looking for in there?” James pointed at the Map as Lily jabbed him with her elbow. “Oof–What??”

“Don’t you want to ask your friend why he’s sitting alone in a cold corridor instead of in his house’s tower with his friends just steps away?”

“I’m sure he has a good reason. Don’t you, Pete?”

“Oh. Yeah!” Peter lifted the map. “Was just looking for some fun.” He smiled his brightest smile up at them both. And just like that James was on the floor beside him.

“Alright. What’s up, Wormtail? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!”

“Come on. I know you. What is it?”

“Seriously, nothing!” Peter felt his cheeks burning.

“Should I go?” Lily asked quietly.

_"No!"_ Peter’s voice echoed down the corridor.

“Nothing is wrong,” he looked at Lily. “You should be here. I mean together, not here, with James,” Peter stammered, “I mean! You two should be together, and there in the common room, and happy.”

There was a long pause.

“But Peter,” Lily knelt on his other side, “What does that have to do with you being out here and alone?” Peter rubbed his eyes. A sickening thought seemed to cross James’ mind at that moment. He put an arm around Peter’s shoulders and pulled him over.

“Pete. Is this about what you told us last month? Shit, _did I do something wrong?_”

Peter had come out to his friends as aromantic and “some kind of asexual” on the last night they had all piled into one bed and talked until four in the morning. James, Remus, and Sirius were incredibly supportive and happy for him. But in that same week, Lily had asked James out on their first date. They were officially a couple engaging in regular PDA shortly after. It wasn’t until Peter was regularly dodging his friends during free periods and sneaking through the common room in a cloud of fifth years that he realized he wasn’t just aro and ace-spec. He was also what an aromantic Ravenclaw had called “romance repulsed.”

“No, you didn’t. You didn’t do anything wrong, Prongs. It’s me. I just… don’t like seeing people snogging and grabbing each other and being all–” He fluttered his fingers in front of his face. “Ugh, that sounds terrible, I’m terrible. I’m sorry.”

“That’s not true!” Lily grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight. Her eyes blazed. “There is nothing wrong with you. So you don’t like PDA. That’s fine! That’s great! I just wish you hadn’t felt the need to hide that from us. We don’t ever want make you uncomfortable.”

“Right,” James gave his shoulder a little shake.

“But it feels like I’m asking you not to be happy…”

“You’re not though,” James said. “Mate, we would only be unhappy if we kept missing out on time with you!” He wrapped Peter in a monster hug and lurched to one side so that they both went from a sitting position to sprawled across the floor.

James laughed, and finally Peter smiled–a real smile this time–and hugged him back. Lily offered them each a hand and pulled them up. Together they refolded the Map before rounding the corner to find the Fat Lady asleep in her frame.

“Episkey!” Peter cried. The Fat Lady awoke with a start.

She gave Peter a curious look, but “The password at last" is all she said. She swung open, and the three friends returned to the comfort and warmth of Gryffindor Tower.


End file.
